Family Picture 2011

Thomas Family 2011- Yeah! We are all still alive surviving Northern Virginia! We are all getting into the fall groove of things. Adam is in a small preschool/kindergarten class and he is loving it! Maren is running everywhere- and Steve is loving his job. We love the weekends where we can all just chill out at home. Last weekend my brother visited and we are planning on seeing Steve's family for Thanksgiving. We also bought tickets to Utah for Christmas! YEAH!! We can't wait for all the fun Holiday Festivities - Bring it... Christmas season 2011!

Babies vs housekeeping

The Fam

Um I just love em all!!

What I will be making for Adams Big 5

The Most Amazing Chocolate Cake… Ever!

1 Chocolate Cake Mix (any kind, I've used chocolate fudge, Swiss chocolate, or milk chocolate)

1 C Mini Chocolate Chips

1 cup Sour Cream

1 Pkg. of Chocolate Pudding (small 3.5 oz. box)

Prepare cake as directed on box, and add sour cream, pudding and chocolate chips. Pour into 2 9-inch round baking pans. Bake as directed on box (you might need to add a minute or two to the baking time because of the added ingredients). Place on a wire rack to cool.

Equally Impressive Chocolate Frosting

1 cup butter at room temperature

3 oz. Ghirardelli 100% cocoa chocolate bar

4-5 cups powered sugar

milk

Pretty Near Perfect!

So I had yet another surgery in May... this time on my knee. I feel like the past 14 months has been a blur of surgeries and trying to recover from it. But anyways since May I really haven't felt on top of life. There is always laundry, messes, drudgery -etc. So when I saw this on littlemissmomma - I felt like I had so share- Sometimes (most times) I can't articulate what I want to say...and this was perfect!

Sometimes I have one of those days where its harder to get things done.
My mind wanders, I'm not as effective, I forget why I walked into the room.
And then, sometimes one of those days turns into one of those weeks.
Like this week.

As hard as I tried, everything I did seemed to take 3 times longer than it should have.
I used to get down on myself when I had days like these.
But after two years of motherhood, I've learned that this is just part of the territory.
Not only with motherhood, but with life.
Sometimes life takes longer, sometimes we're not at out best, sometimes we only write two blog posts in a week, and sometimes we don't brush our hair.
And you know what?
I think that's okay.

Washington DC with Family

My little niece Kennedy came to visit for a month in June and we had so much fun together. We went to Georgetown Cupcakes, we toured the Capital - when to Great Falls, the Washington Monument, the white house- the Lincoln Memorial and Mt. Vernon! We got to do so much! We miss her like crazy already and hope that she will come back next year.

Our Little Barracuda!!

Continued Update!

For my Family...

Maren

Here is her PURPLEICIOUS cast!

2011 Yeah! Good bye 2010!!

WOW- What a year!
Here is our year in review-

Maren joined our family February 26, 2010 (what a doll face)
Had complications with recovery had two additional operations

Steve Graduated from VCU with a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning
YEAHH!!!

Steve got a job with ICF International and we moved up to NOVA! (scary)

Traveled to Utah for a family reunion-

Found out in August some devastating news about a family member- changed everything.
I still have huge issues with this... obviously.

Stacie had another operation the day before Thanksgiving...

Enjoyed Christmas with our new friends the Cardwells and Smiths!!!

Maren broke her tibia 8 days after the new year!!

FUN HUH!

Any who! Steve and I adore our kids and each other and we are grateful for all the we have been given~! I think that that is the most I have ever written on this thing... And just to show how much I never blog... I forgot my password to log on. Haha got to love it.